ABSOLUTE CONTROL

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIII, 18 July 1929, Page 7

ABSOLUTE CONTROL

ITS OPERATION SOME MISGIVINGS (Nineteen Twenty-Eight Committee) With “absolute control” still imposed upon exported fruit and honey, and not altogether unlikely to be reimposed, upon dairy produce, it behoves the public to watch closely such intrusions upon legitimate private enterprise. Absolute control not only sidles individual effort and discourages personal initiative, but it also involves the whole community, more or less, in the perils of inofficionoy and extravagance. Of these evils there was abundant evidence during the period in which the Dairy ControL Board experimented, at the expense of the producers, with absolute control. Just now, if current reports arc to bo trusted, further evidence to the same elfcct is nearer to hand. , , . . , It is common talk in shipping and commercial circles that in the early part of the season, owing to wrong calculations, as to the supplies available, the Board in many cases was unable to fill the spaco it bad booked; Later on in tlio season, so it is said, the space booked was insufficient to carry all tlio fruit available, with tlio result that many thousands of eases bad to remain for lengthy periods in tlio Wellington Harbour Board’s Cheese Store, which is regarded by experts as unsuitable for tho storage of fruit, except for short periods. Orchardists who had correctly estimated their spaco requirements and booked for later shipments accordingly, it is complained, had their spaco commandeered for tho shipment of tho accumulated surpluses of less vigilant producers, and now aro iiofc only in danger of missing tho' flush of the market, but also are running .tile risk of their fruit seriously deteriorating in consequence of the delay. Further than this, it is stated that when tho fruit accumulated in tho Wellington Harbour Board’s Cheese Store came to bo shipped, so largo a proportion of it was found to bo in such unsatisfactory condition that tho shipping companies divested themselves of all responsibility for its condition when, it reached its destination.

Unless the position has been much misrepresented, the Fruit Control Board has a very weighty indictment to meet, and the sooner it sets about the task the better it will be for its own reputation and for the equanimity of the shippers. Tlio ■unhappy taxpayers are pledged to a subsidy that may run them into an expenditure of £IOO,OOO or so for tho present season, but they will not be likely to repeat this bounty if any considerable portion of the fruit now in transit turns out to be in the condition indicated by the attitude of the shipping companies. The whole question of the State subsidizing fruit entrusted to the care of a body exercising absolute control and recognising po constituted authority is one the Government well might take into consideration at the present time. Presuming for a moment that the report to .the effect that many thousand cases of fruit despatched from Wellington this season were in bad condition before they left port is well founded, then, it was a foregone conclusion that the taxpayers in due course would have to make good the losses of the shippers. This docs not imply that the growers were dishonest or that tho graders were inattentivo. It simply suggests that absolute control stands in need of a very thorough investigation.